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Nintendo Unveils Wii MotionPlus
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Jul 14, 2008 02:29 PM
from the out-to-spoil-someone's-day dept.
from the out-to-spoil-someone's-day dept.
Tim MacDonald writes "In a pre-conference announcement at E3, Nintendo has unveiled the newest accessory for the Nintendo Wii — the Wii MotionPlus. The Wii MotionPlus combines with the Wiimote's accelerometers and the Sensor Bar to give true, almost 1:1 matching of motion. More to come during Tuesday's conference." If all these battery mods and add-ons to the Wiimote continue my controller is going to start looking less like a controller and more like a quarterstaff. Looks like the wrist strap is going to have to go through another round of beefing up.
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Next... (Score:5, Funny)
So when's the WiiSuit going to be announced? Stick accelerometers and IR sensors all over a bodysuit and track entire body movement.
Re:Next... (Score:5, Funny)
You might end up with a few not so family-oriented games with a suit like that.
Hell, I can think of one right now: Wii-sure Suit Larry.
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Re:Next... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Next... (Score:5, Funny)
Great, all the fat geek man boobs will animate Lara Croft on screen.
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Re:Next... (Score:5, Funny)
Wouldn't that be the WiiFuck ?
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What next? Temperature sensing? (Score:4, Funny)
I don't want to know where THAT WIImote goes...
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Re:Next... (Score:5, Informative)
The "sensor bar" isn't a sensor at all. It's just some IR LED's. The sensor, in the form of a digital camera, is inside the wii-mote. I don't think it would be much good for a mo-cap suit...little cameras all over your body?
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Finally (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Finally (Score:4, Informative)
The current motion sensing is pretty bad, it flinches alot, it jumps around, it felt added on.
I've had the exact opposite experience with Resident Evil 4 and Metroid Prime Hunters, both of which felt immediately responsive and accurate. Maybe you got a bad unit or controller?
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Finally (Score:5, Informative)
Also been there, seen that. If you want to go dust off your Wii and try again, here's what worked for me (FWIW). Go to the sensor sensitivity section of the Wii setup menus. Slowly move your Wiimote around to cover the entire area near the TV, and watch for stray dots/blotches/etc on the sensor display. Two dots from the sensor bar are normal, but you may see more dots if there are other light sources within your Wiimote's field of view - the primary culprits I've encountered have been lamps and direct sunlight leaking between/around curtains near the TV. Things like that can cause nasty flinching/jumping if the Wii mistakes the lamp/sun/etc for one of the sensor bar light sources. (If you play with a group of people remember to move to each person's playing position and sweep the Wiimote around - a lamp that's behind you during solo play might end up in someone else's field of view after everyone's spread out in an arc in front of the TV.)
And of course if you've never been on this screen before, it's a good time to check your sensitivity settings - if the sensitivity is dialed down too low and you play far enough back from the TV, the Wiimote might be constantly gaining and then losing track of the sensor bar.
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Re:Finally (Score:5, Informative)
If your cursor is continuously jumping by very small amounts, flickering up and down just an inch or two, the two IR LEDs might be reflecting off the coffee table, entertainment center, or whatever the sensor bar is resting on. Make sure it's resting on a non-reflective, non-glossy surface... or move it out to the edge, so there is nothing to reflect off of.
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Re:Finally (Score:5, Informative)
Also, don't forget to check for reflections of said IR light sources. Glass-top coffee tables are commonly found in living room setups between couch and TV, and they can easily confuse the wii remotes as they reflect the sensor bar IR lights. I've "fixed" a few friends' wiis for them just by moving/covering their coffee table. Also have encountered problems with strong lights behind the player reflecting off the front of the TV.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Excite Truck
Boom Blox
Geometry Wars
Medal of Honor Heroes 2
Trauma Center
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
Metroid Prime 3
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
No More Heroes
Endless Ocean
Super Mario Galaxy
Wii Sports
Elebits
Super Monkey Ball
The above post is just an exaggeration, there are plenty of games that work really well for what they are. I think a lot of people have an image in their min
Re:Yep, This Is Nothing More Than A Hardware Patch (Score:5, Funny)
Sony CEO Howard Stringer, is that you ?
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Hardware Update (Score:5, Insightful)
This reminds me of the extra 4Mb of RAM you had to purchase for the N64 to run the more advanced games. It should have come with it in the first place. I wonder if it will come bundled with the first games that require it, as they did with Starfox 64 and the rumble pack.
Either way, it'd be cool to use this so Red Steel works the way they advertised it.
Long ago in a galaxy far far away... (Score:2)
my controller is going to start looking less like a controller and more like a quarterstaff.
The prophecy cometh... [youtube.com]
Whats the point? (Score:3, Informative)
I know I can get it from ebay and all, but I want it for $250 which is the advertised prize.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Whats the point? (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Whats the point? (Score:5, Funny)
Use some of your electrical knowledge and get to work.
I did use some of my electrical knowledge, but I got kicked out of Toys R' Us when I zapped a guy with my homemade stun gun and jumped the counter.
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So if it has truly accurate motion trackin now (Score:3, Interesting)
All for the next Zelda? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:All for the next Zelda? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Or for twilight princess, hear me out for the side benefit.
Right now people are using special save files for Twilight Princess to install homebrew. Nintendo created a system update that deletes certain Twilight princess save files to try and thwart that. Only days later there was a work around.
The way that Nintendo would like to address this would be to update the Twilight Princess game so that this buffer overflow bug would be fixed. There was a software update in the past that lets the Disc Channel check
Quarterstaff (Score:5, Funny)
Actually it's a buck and a quarter quarterstaff, but I'm not telling him that.
Game gloves? Artificial reality? (Score:2)
Nintendo used to have the Glove game controller on the original 8-bit NES system.
I wonder if the end-game is to embed sensors into something with the same textile properties of a baseball batting glove and add a small battery/transmitter to a bracelet/wristwatch. I would imagine that the ability to produce a game for a platform where the controller is that advanced would finally make it possible for realistic artificial reality games that we all imagined 10-15 years ago.
And the could still sell them f
Accessory? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Accessory? (Score:5, Funny)
It looks like you're trying to sign your post. I think you'll have to go to http://www.slashdot.org/Special:Preferences [slashdot.org] and set a signature first...
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Re:Accessory? (Score:5, Funny)
GAAAHHH!!!! Bob found a way onto the web. Run!!!!
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Re:Accessory? (Score:4, Funny)
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A good add-on (Score:5, Insightful)
Having played with the Wii for a year and change now, I can say that with regard to motion, the Wiimote seems to be good at detecting motion in the middle of its range, but lacking at the ends of the range.
Case in point: putting in Wii Golf. The learning curve for putting is fairly steep, and sometimes the game got confused with such low velocities. The MotionPlus should help that.
What will be interesting is what happens with actual swordfighting. If you complete a sword swing, but your opponent blocks it, the game will have to resolve the situation by... what? It's not an impossible problem, but it'll still be something new to get used to.
Re:A good add-on (Score:5, Funny)
"What will be interesting is what happens with actual swordfighting. If you complete a sword swing, but your opponent blocks it, the game will have to resolve the situation by... what? It's not an impossible problem, but it'll still be something new to get used to."
If it's the new Lightsaber game then maybe it'll use force feedback. HAHAHA get it "force feedback" You know, like the force. Lightsabers are from the movie series "Star Wars" where they used a magical power called the force, and controllers that simulate resistance are called "force feedback controllers," and the only way to get that feed back in a free form controller such as the one the wii uses would be through a magical effect such as "the force." It's funny mainly because I took this much time to explain it or not.
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Re:A good add-on (Score:5, Interesting)
It goes beyond 'simulating resistance' to 'the onscreen avatar is subject to forces that you, the physical human, are not.'
A simple example: You, as a person holding a wii-saber, make a sideways cut. From your perspective, it's rather like a baseball swing; your right shoulder to your left shoulder.
Your on-screen opponent, however, does a very nice twirly parry of your blade, carrying it aabove your right shoulder.
So, now you are physically holding your wii-saber, two-handed, past your left shoulder. Your onscreen avatar is hoding his wii-saber, two handed, above it's right shoulder. How to reconcile?
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Re:A good add-on (Score:5, Interesting)
There was a lot of discussion about this when the Wii's controller was first unveiled. The best explanation that I read is that the control would play a sound signifying two blades crossing, letting you know to stop your swing and to draw the remote back. Until then, it would just treat your virtual sword as though the blow had been deflected or as though it had glanced off until the remote is returned to some neutral position and the virtual sword is ready to be swung again. Eventually you would train your own body to act as your own force feedback mechanism as you become better at reacting to the visual and audio cues from the game. If you continue to wildly flail about the game simply leaves your virtual self open to attack and you die.
Of course everything was speculative at the time and the Wii controller didn't seem as though it had the precision for something like this when the system initially launched, but if the improvements are as good as they're being hyped-up to be, then I suppose it's possible for someone to implement a good sword fighting game, but anything I've played on the console up until now has been a serious disappointment.
There are probably a few other ways to implement a good system, but short of this new gadget having some inertia-defying properties as well, I haven't heard of anything else that was likely to work any better.
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I need a moving truck for my Wii alone. (Score:5, Interesting)
I have always loved Nintendo's work, but the whole peripherals thing is getting to be ridiculous. I remember when Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles was released on the Gamecube, and to take full advantage of the (actually quite fun) multiplayer required four Gameboy Advance systems and four GBA to GCN connector cables (hundreds of dollars altogether). The same thing happened with The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.
I remember a lot of people complaining about the GCN's dependency on other Nintendo products: I thought that the Wii would address these concerns. Instead, a fully-equipped Wii has four remotes (this is fine), four nunchuk attachments (the fact that they must be purchased separately is annoying), two classic controllers, Wii Wheels, Wii Zappers, the Wii Balance Board, and now four new motion-enhancing attachments.
The only way to justify owning this ridiculous amount of white plastic would be for each peripheral to be supported by a pretty solid library of games. Instead, we see a mere handful of low-quality games making halfhearted use of them. Or (and God forbid we see more of this), we see games eschewing everything that makes the Wii unique to make use of good old GCN controllers (more plastic to keep on hand). Honestly, the classic controller is the most useful peripheral right now because it works wonderfully with most of the Virtual Console titles.
All that said, however, I still feel the need for the motion controls to be improved. They have a tendency to be very twitchy and inaccurate, even in some of the bigger games (I noticed a fair amount of this in Super Mario Galaxy). It will be interesting to see how much these new add-ons will help the issue.
What I'd really like to see instead of more and more tangible objects that I can plug into my Wii remote are games that make interesting, fun, and intelligent use of the already existing systems. There's a ton of potential for the hardware, and I'd love to see it really take off.
Don't forget the Wiimote uses Bluetooth (Score:3, Interesting)
Since the Wiimote uses Bluetooth to communicate with the Wii, it can be used with a PC. There is some software that takes advantage of it, though if you are interested there is http://www.wiili.org/ [wiili.org] . The site documents the Wiimote communication protocol and lists some drivers available for the Linux, Windows, MacOS X and Java.
I wonder whether the intention of using Bluetooth was to use off the shelf equipment for the Wii, to facilitate development for it or even a bit of both?
Golf (Score:3, Insightful)
Does this mean I can make short puts in Wii Golf now? One of the most annoying things of any of the motion controlled games was having to make small movements if a situation arose and the controller not quite responding to it. You could sit there moving the wiimote a good 6-7 inches and it would act like you hadn't even moved it. Move it more and it was like you were hammering it. I tried a 6 inch putt once and almost drove it back to the tee.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How does it work? (Score:4, Informative)
And that Nintendo will tell more tomorrow ...
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Re:"true" 1:1? (Score:5, Informative)
Rotation
They'd be able to measure acceleration in 3 axis and derive angular acceleration in 3 axis. (And the further apart the two accelerometers are, the more sensitive it'd be to angular changes).
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Re:"true" 1:1? (Score:4, Interesting)
Gravity would not have shifted, and it would not have moved in any profound way, But if there were a seccond accelerometer a few inches back, that one would sense movement. With this it would be able to really know the difference between say, moving the whole remote, or swinging it in a direction.
As it stands the wiimote doesn't have any true way to detect the difference between moving the whole remote to the right, and a swing the right, But with two accelerometers one would move both accelerometers equally, and the other would move one a lot more than the other. Hence, 1:1 becomes more possible.
I really hope we see a sword fighting game.
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Re:Where the hell's my battery charger? (Score:4, Informative)
You mean like this?
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3333 [dealextreme.com]
Yes, I bought it and yes it works perfectly. I haven't had to worry about my Wiimote batteries at all since buying it.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Secondly, you're probably right about how useful it will be. Ver
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Whiners (Score:5, Insightful)
No it doesn't, not anymore.
Console makers learned this lesson long ago, I guess the memo missed Nintendo.
This controller isn't made for a specific game. As such, some people will buy it some not. Even if it has better functionality, developers will not develop for it since only a fraction of the Wii user population will own the controller. Its the same reason practically every peripheral/add-on for any game system ever sold has been a total failure. Super Scope, 32x, Sega CD etc etc ETC. The only add-ons that were successes were those that were made intentionally for only one specific game or a very small subset of specific games - DDR, Guitar Hero for example. They were considered successful only because they happened to have the "controller" packaged with the game and were never marketed as a general enhancement to the video game system. As such I wouldn't really consider them in the same category as this Wii controller.
Actually, the only REAL peripheral - i.e. those made for most/many games - that wasn't a total failure was the original Dual-Shock. The controller completely supplanted the old non-dual shock controller and the dual analog sticks were necessary to play practically every game only few months after release. In that case, Sony had a relatively small initial base before switching over, so not that many people were annoyed that their old controllers didn't work anymore. The Wii has a much, much larger user-base, and even worse, a much more video-game-ignorant proportion of owners. Try explaining to your 60 year old relatives why their new game doesn't work on their system anymore.
Point is, no developer would ever risk that happening, so no developer will ever make a game that only uses that controller. Sure, they might have a toggle option or something, but that means that game had to be built to accommodate both, and can never reach its full potential if it stuck to one control method. Imagine if on the 360 or PS3 every game had to be designed in such a way as to be playable both on the analog controls and digital controls.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The only add-ons that were successes were those that were made intentionally for only one specific game or a very small subset of specific games - DDR, Guitar Hero for example.
Nunchuck.
Classic controller.
You don't even have to read the article (Score:3, Informative)
Just look at the picture.
There is clearly a nub where a nunchuck could plug in and the extended Wiimote jacket clearly has a hole in the right place to allow access.
Personally I think it should include wireless nunchuck capability. It seems rather suboptimal to have a Wiimote that will track free movement better still tied to a nunchuck.